#5 HOW TO PRACTICE?Matias Kiil

EXHIBITIONÖZGÜR KAR

ExhibitionKjartan Slettemark: Byens Bilde

In 1965, Kjartan Slettemark was part of the UKS exhibition series “Byens bilde” (city image), displaying selected artists’ work in a glass vitrine positioned in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo. Slettemark’s contribution, a collage, was entitled Av rapport fra Vietnam. Barn overskylles av brennende napalm. Deres hud brennes til svarte sår og de dør. (Report from Vietnam. Children are showered in napalm. Their skin burns to black wounds and they die.)

The work stirred national debate and even drew international attention. The controversy peaked in May 1965 when a man vandalized Slettemark’s work by throwing paint at it. In August 1965 a second perpetrator significantly damaged the piece, attacking the vitrine with an axe.

*This information is taken from the UKS Archive (1921–1998), courtesy of The National Archives of Norway, accessible in full at our venue in Oslo. To review the Archive’s complete list of physical folders—containing newspaper clippings, correspondence, contracts, and ephemera—please click here.